What Are "The Chosen" On 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'? Simmons Was Selected By The Kree For A Mysterious Purpose

Jemma, you in danger, girl. Simmons got an extra dose of terrible in the Season 5 premiere of ABC's Marvel series when she was hand-picked by a preening Kree to be one of his gold-festooned personal servants. But what are "The Chosen" on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., exactly? As if being marooned on a Kree-infested space station in a future where Earth no longer exists isn't bad enough, the sweet-tempered biologist now has to deal with an egomaniacal alien overlord and his unwanted attentions. But what does he want from her precisely, and what role do Simmons and the other "Chosen" have to play in Season 5?

Like always, it remains frustrating for fans to try to decipher the plot of S.H.I.E.L.D. ahead of time, given the way it plays fast and loose with the source material. The show tends to borrow general ideas from the Marvel comics rather than adapt specific storylines; and even when it does pull something directly off the page, it tends to change that plot or character in surprising ways. (Think of the way the show altered Daisy Johnson's origin from a mutant to an Inhuman… an alteration the comics later retconned into their own history.)

Case in point: the out-of-this-world cliffhanger to Season 4 had most viewers assuming S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to introduce the popular space-centric defense group known as S.W.O.R.D., only to defy expectations with a time-travel-alien-invasion-apocalypse plot that seems like an entirely original creation. So the identity and purpose of The Chosen is just as mysterious as the rest of what's going on in Season 5.

Jennifer Clasen/ABC

That said, the comics could still give us a hint of the general direction in which the S.H.I.E.L.D. writers are heading with this strange story. On the page, the Kree are usually depicted as a race that is so advanced they have virtually reached the end of their evolutionary potential; their attempts to use humans in experiments to find ways of advancing their own evolution is what led to the creation of the Inhumans in the first place. Kasius, the Kree who "chose" Simmons, has stated that he admires perfection — and all the rest of The Chosen seem to be young, healthy, and beautiful — so it's possible that he's looking for subjects to help him create a new master race.

Or maybe he just prefers his servants to be pretty. Who knows?

Whatever Kasius hopes to use Simmons for, fans can rest assured that it's bound to backfire on him. Not only is she super smart and guaranteed to find a way out of her predicament eventually, but there's a comic book storyline that might foreshadow the fact that Kasius' selection of Simmons is what could lead to the Kree's downfall.

In the comics, at the height of the war between the Krees and the Skrulls — with the Avengers fighting in the middle to prevent Earth from becoming collateral damage — the Supreme Intelligence (a sort of organic supercomputer containing the minds of some of the greatest Kree thinkers) realized that the conflict was futile, and became determined to stop it. To that end, he selected Rick Jones: ordinary human sidekick to heroes like the Hulk, Captain America, and Captain Marvel, and frequent tagalong to the Avengers.

Summoning the ordinary teenager to his side, Supremor temporarily altered the boy's DNA in order to unlock a dormant power within him known as the Destiny Force — a virtually unlimited source of energy. Briefly granted godlike powers, Rick was able to freeze the Kree and Skrull forces in place for long enough to Supremor to end the hostilities. But the Destiny Force proved too strong for Rick, who succumbed to the energy and died. The Supremor then summoned the Avengers to gaze upon the irony that it was the sacrifice of an unpowered teenage boy that stopped the war, not their superpowered brawn.

An ordinary human in a group of superpowered beings, hand-selected by an all-mighty Kree, who ends up being the one to actually defeat the Kree? Sounds an awful lot like the trajectory Simmons may be on this season. But less you worry that her storyline ends in a similarly tragic fate, there is a little bit more to Rick's story. Moved by Rick's sacrifice, his mentor Captain Marvel used his own life force to bring the youth back to life.

Will Simmons' status as a "Chosen" one allow her to be in a position to defeat the Kree? Will that action require the ultimate sacrifice on her part? If so, will someone be around with the ability to bring her back to life? This season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is just heating up.